Crisis in Destiny 2: Bungie remains silent and Steam ignores rules for refunds

An issue in communication on the part of Bungie regarding a region block in Destiny 2 led to a flood of negative criticism and forced Valve, owner of Steam, to intervene directly. In an action that violates its own policies, Steam is issuing refunds to affected players, including those with thousands of hours of gameplay. The situation, which has been going on for over a week, affects players in Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan.

The main cause of dissatisfaction is the sudden block, which appears with error code TAPIR, indicating access restriction which, according to Bungie, is due to "legal restrictions." The only official response from the team on their forums was the vague statement: "Destiny services are not available where access is restricted by law." This lack of clarity, combined with reports that accounts created in the mentioned regions are being banned for attempting to use workarounds, such as VPNs, has led to a severe reaction. The score of Destiny 2 on Steam dropped from a 'mostly positive' (78%) to 'mostly negative' in the last 30 days, with only 32% positive reviews in that period. In Russian reviews, the game reached the status of 'overwhelmingly negative' this month, with a mere 9% of positivity.

The community is seeking answers and solutions. One player turned to the Bungie blog to express the need for transparency, requesting that "the Bungie team provide a more detailed comment on this situation." Without an official explanation of which law is being cited or if there is an imminent technical solution, players have resorted to unsanctioned methods to access the game. On PC, this includes using a VPN only for the login phase, while on Xbox changing the DNS server works; however, PSN accounts registered in Russia have no known solution.

Faced with the breakdown in developer communication and the loss of access to purchased products, Valve decided to intervene. Affected players who requested refunds for Destiny 2 DLC on Steam are having their requests granted, even if they have exceeded the standard two-hour gameplay limit. One player, for example, demonstrated to The Game Post that they received a refund for the Ultimate Edition and several DLCs after explaining the situation, despite having over 2,000 hours of registered gameplay.

Although there are multiple cases of refunds being granted, the process is still not guaranteed for everyone. The ambiguity suggests that the success of each request may depend on the individual reviewer processing it, creating a layer of uncertainty for the consumer. The only way for Bungie to reverse this situation and mitigate the damage to their reputation, especially with hardcore players who have invested thousands of hours, is to issue a constructive and immediate statement, ending the communication crisis. The PCGamesN outlet confirmed they have sought comments from Bungie on the situation.

The direct intervention of Steam, violating its own policy to protect Destiny 2 consumers against region blocking, is a notable precedent in the digital distribution landscape. However, the trust crisis generated by Bungie's lack of communication about access restrictions in Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan remains the studio's main challenge.